Juventus defeated Lyon 2-1 at the Juventus Stadium in the Europa League Second-Leg Quarter Final, a result which meant the Italian side go into the semi-finals thanks to a 3-1 aggregate scoreline.
Andrea Pirlo’s free kick opened the scoring for Juventus early in the match, before Jimmy Briand levelled for Lyon, but Claudio Marchisio’s deflected effort separated the teams on the night.
The game started with a bang with Carlos Tevez curling just over Anthony Lopes’ crossbar from 25 yards after easily sidestepping Bakary Kone.
The frantic start to the match soon had its first goal in the opening five minutes. Andrea Pirlo doing what he does best, placing a free kick given away by Corentin Tolisso into the top left corner with ease, leaving Lopes rooted to the spot.
Lyon could have had a penalty not long after the opener as Tolisso struck a shot which appeared to strike Leonardo Bonucci on the arm but the referee waved away the protests.
They would get their away goal though when a short corner ended with a miss-hit cross to the back post where Jimmy Briand would head back across goal and, although Gianluigi Buffon got a hand to it, the ball hit the inside of the post and went in.
The game then settled in a midfield battle with both teams opting to play the ball long and to the wings but the final crucial pass wasn’t to either side’s usual standard.
Just before the half an hour mark Maxime Gonalons met a strike brilliantly well from outside the area but Buffon matched the shot well with a good save as the Bianconeri were able to deal with the danger.
Juventus couldn’t seem to find a way past the well structured Lyon midfield as the first half soon petered out. This was due to the sheer fact that both sides, although having a fair bit of the ball, were failing to do anything effective with it.
The second half mirrored the final quarter of the first half as balls from Mirko Vucinic and Mauricio Isla were well intercepted by the Lyon backline with the Argentinean Tevez ready to pounce.
A cross from Kwadwo Asamoah took a slight deflection off of Samuel Umtiti and goalkeeper Lopes did very well to get fingertips to the cross to deny Tevez who was waiting for an easy tap in to end his European goal drought.
The best chance Lyon could muster in the opening quarter of the second half was a wild shot from Alexandre Lacazette which ended up going off for a throw in.
The goal drought of Tevez looked to be over following the Lacazette effort, when he met a Pirlo cross brilliantly with a glancing header but was correctly ruled out for offside.
The next five minutes would prove as frantic as the opening of the match with Arnold Mvuemba hitting a sweet free kick which was well saved by Buffon.
The resulting two corners were cleared by Juventus and the Bianconeri countered with power and Claudio Marchisio got a long range strike away which took a massive deflection of Umtiti before nestling in the goal to restore the Juventus lead.
Substitute Bafetimbi Gomis tried to ignite a Lyon fight back with an optimistic strike that was easily saved by Buffon as the match entered the final ten minutes.
Lyon began to run out of ideas and time as Juventus started to control the game once more. Sebastian Giovinco taking an eternity to get a shot away inside the area which ended up flying over the bar. It would prove to be the final chance of the match.
Juventus will find out which team they will meet in the Europa League semi-finals on Friday April 11.
